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i 8 6
K Ø B E N H A V N S K E S VÆ R D F E G E R E
lishcd themselves as manufacturers o f the fi
nest swords for officers and courtiers.
Matthias Jurzick is known to have attended
the designing class o f G. F. Hetsch in
18 18
and the influence o f his teacher is obvious in
his master piece (Royal Arms at Rosenborg
no.
6
o), the design for which is reproduced
on Plate
1 8
. The sword Plate
1 9
, was made
by Jurzick after the design o f Theophilus
Hansen, who later on distinguished himself as
a famous architect in Vienna. To judge from
the Acanthus-ornament on the backpiece,
Jurzick may also have influenced the design
for the naval officer’s sword still used in the
Danish navy. In
1840
Jurzick was appointed
sword-cutler to the King, an appointment
not given to any sword-cutler since the death
o fJ. Chr.Weidenhaupt in
179 6
. He was alder
man o f the braziers’ guild
1843-47
and died
in
1859
.
Johan Herazcek made a number o f officer’s
swords o f fine quality. His son, Johan Seier
Herazcek, born in
18 2 5
, was trained by his
father and taught in the designing class o f
G. F. Hetsch in the years
1843
-
4 7
. In
1845
or
46
he became a journeyman and made his
masterpieces in
18 5 0
. As an assistant in his
father’s workshop he built it up to be the first
o f its kind in Scandinavia. His collaboration
with young artists o f the time brought about
excellent results in the swords o f luxury (see
Plates
2 1
and
22
) which gave him an oppor
tunity to display his own skill as a chiseller.
In
1855
he exhibited some swords at the
world exhibition in Paris and went there him
self, stopping at S.olingen to study the craft
o f the blade-smiths there.
King Frederik V II (
1848
-
1863
) was an en
thusiastic admirer o f odd weapons and had
several pieces made by J. S. Herazcek who,
after the death o f Jurzick, was appointed
sword-cutler to the King in
1 8 6 1
.
The
1850
’s thus saw the last flowering o f
the sword-cutler’s craft in Copenhagen. The
unhappy war o f
1864
cooled domestic in
terest in weapons on the whole and the sword
began to lose its importance in warfare. J. S.
Herazcek died in
1881
and after the death o f
his successor in
1898
the last sword-cutler’s
firm in Copenhagen ceased to exist.